Corrective feedback loop for automated speech recognition

ABSTRACT

A method for facilitating the updating of a language model includes receiving, at a client device, via a microphone, an audio message corresponding to speech of a user; communicating the audio message to a first remote server; receiving, that the client device, a result, transcribed at the first remote server using an automatic speech recognition system (“ASR”), from the audio message; receiving, at the client device from the user, an affirmation of the result; storing, at the client device, the result in association with an identifier corresponding to the audio message; and communicating, to a second remote server, the stored result together with the identifier.

I. CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS

The present application is a nonprovisional patent application of, and claims priority under 35 U.S.C. §119(e) to, each of the following:

-   (1) U.S. provisional patent application Ser. No. 61/038,048, filed     Mar. 19, 2008 and titled “CORRECTIVE FEEDBACK LOOP FOR AUTOMATED     SPEECH RECOGNITION;” and -   (2) U.S. provisional patent application Ser. No. 61/041,219, filed     Mar. 31, 2008 and titled “USE OF METADATA TO POST PROCESS SPEECH     RECOGNITION OUTPUT.”     Each of the foregoing patent applications from which priority is     claimed is hereby incorporated herein by reference in its entirety.

Additionally, U.S. nonprovisional patent application 11/697,074, filed Apr. 5, 2007 and published as U.S. Patent Application Publication No. US 2007/0239837, is incorporated herein by reference, and each of the following patent applications, and any corresponding patent application publications thereof, are incorporated herein by reference:

-   (1) U.S. nonprovisional patent application Ser. No. 12/197,213,     filed Aug. 22, 2008 and titled “CONTINUOUS SPEECH TRANSCRIPTION     PERFORMANCE INDICATION;” -   (2) U.S. nonprovisional patent application Ser. No. 12/197,227,     filed Aug. 22, 2008 and titled “TRANSCRIBING AND MATCHING MOBILE     DEVICE UTTERANCES TO KEYWORDS TAKEN FROM MOBILE DEVICE MESSAGES AND     ASSOCIATED WITH WEB ADDRESSES;” -   (3) U.S. provisional patent application 61/091,330, filed Aug. 22,     2008 and titled “METHODS, APPARATUSES, AND SYSTEMS FOR PROVIDING     TIMELY USER CUES PERTAINING TO SPEECH RECOGNITION;” -   (4) U.S. nonprovisional patent application 12/198,112, filed Aug.     25, 2008 and titled “FILTERING TRANSCRIPTIONS OF UTTERANCES;” -   (5) U.S. nonprovisional patent application Ser. No. 12/198,116,     filed Aug. 25, 2008 and titled “FACILITATING PRESENTATION BY MOBILE     DEVICE OF ADDITIONAL CONTENT FOR A WORD OR PHRASE UPON UTTERANCE     THEREOF;” -   (6) U.S. nonprovisional patent application Ser. No.12/212,644, filed     Sep. 17, 2008 and titled “METHODS AND SYSTEMS FOR DYNAMICALLY     UPDATING WEB SERVICE PROFILE INFORMATION BY PARSING TRANSCRIBED     MESSAGE STRINGS;” -   (7) U.S. nonprovisional patent application Ser. No. 12/212,645,     filed Sep. 17, 2008 and titled “FACILITATING PRESENTATION OF ADS     RELATING TO WORDS OF A MESSAGE;” and -   (8) U.S. nonprovisional patent application Ser. No. 12/344,313,     filed Dec. 26, 2008 and titled “VALIDATION OF MOBILE ADVERTISING     FROM DERIVED INFORMATION.” -   (9) U.S. nonprovisional patent application Ser. No. 12/355,319,     filed Jan. 16, 2009 and titled “USING A PHYSICAL PHENOMENON DETECTOR     TO CONTROL OPERATION OF A SPEECH RECOGNITION ENGINE.” -   (10) U.S. nonprovisional patent application Ser. No. 12/400,723,     filed Mar. 9, 2009 and titled “USE OF INTERMEDIATE SPEECH     TRANSCRIPTION RESULTS IN EDITING FINAL SPEECH TRANSCRIPTION     RESULTS.”

Finally, the disclosure of provisional application 60/789,837 is contained in Appendix A attached hereto and, likewise, is incorporated herein in its entirety by reference and is intended to provide background and technical information with regard to the systems and environments of the inventions of the current provisional patent application. Similarly, the disclosure of the brochure of Appendix B is incorporated herein in its entirety by reference.

II. COPYRIGHT STATEMENT

All of the material in this patent document is subject to copyright protection under the copyright laws of the United States and of other countries. The copyright owner has no objection to the facsimile reproduction by anyone of the patent document or the patent disclosure, as it appears in the governmental files or records, but otherwise reserves all copyright rights whatsoever.

III. COMPUTER PROGRAM LISTING

Submitted concurrently herewith via the USPTO's electronic filing system, and incorporated herein by reference, is a computer program listing illustrating instructions, routines, and/or other contents of a computer program. The computer program listing is for 1 computer file(s) that represents an embodiment of the invention. The computer program listing includes file “source2.txt”, created at 11:24:55 PM, Mar. 19, 2008, last modified at 11:24:56 PM, Mar. 19, 2008, having a file size of 5,913 bytes and a file size on the disk of 8,192 bytes. The computer program listing includes source code written in J2ME. The target hardware for this implementation is any hardware profile that can utilize an HTTP, HTTPS, or UDP protocol, or else has its own communication protocol.

IV. BACKGROUND OF THE PRESENT INVENTION

Automatic Speech Recognition (“ASR”) systems are designed to convert an audio message containing speech into text. Recognition accuracy for a particular utterance can vary based on many factors including the audio fidelity of the recorded speech, correctness of the speaker's pronunciation, and the like. These factors contribute to continuously varying levels of recognition accuracy which can result in several possible transcriptions for a particular utterance.

Language models (“LMs”), which may include hierarchical language models (“HLMs”), statistical language models (“SLMs”), grammars, and the like, assign probabilities to a sequence of words by means of a probability distribution and try to capture the properties of a language so as to predict the next word in a speech sequence. They are used in conjunction with acoustic models (“AMs”) to convert dictated words to transcribed text. The current state of the art with regard to both creating and updating AMs and LMs requires speech scientists to manually process hundreds to thousands of hours of spoken phrases or words to build AM and LM databases containing phonemes, all of the possible words within a spoken language, and their statistical interrelationships. ASR engines then compare an audio fingerprint against the AMs and LMs with the goal of obtaining a statistically significant match of the spoken audio to its textual representation. There is great expense in this process since a great deal of engineering time is required to generate and update AMs and LMs as languages continue to evolve and new words are continually coined and used in common lexicon.

Thus, a need exists for an automated, less labor intensive approach for generating and updating LMs for use in ASR systems.

V. SUMMARY OF THE PRESENT INVENTION

The present invention comprises an approach that simplifies the method by which LMs can be updated by putting the burden of updating LMs on the individual commercial users of the speech recognition platforms as they interact with a mobile client or web interface. As users interact with said mobile clients and web interfaces, they will see the results of their audio input returned as transcribed text. Any words that could have statistically been similar to other possibilities for that spoken word will appear highlighted and contain an n-best drop down list, for example. The user can then correct the phrase by choosing the intended word in the drop down list, manually editing and replacing the n-best results with the actual word, or speaking the correct form of the word again and performing another speech recognition query to generate the correct form of the word. Even without an n-best result, the user could still update or revise a given word. Once the original transcribed message is corrected, the user can then send the message for delivery to the intended recipient. In the use cases of a transcribed memo or voicemail, the corrected result is fed back into the speech recognition platform to modify core, application, or user centric models.

The corrected results are then either cached in the mobile client for upload to the ASR platform in a subsequent speech recognition transaction, thereby optimizing battery performance, or are sent back to the platform immediately once the user sends the message for delivery. Immediate delivery of the corrected form of the transaction occurs when the user is interacting with a web interface because small client battery performance would not be a concern. Once the corrected result is returned to the user, the corrected result is paired with the original outgoing result, and the LM is updated giving the correction a higher statistical probability than initially generated so that future queries will have a higher likelihood of generating the correct textual representation of the spoken word.

The present invention according to one aspect relates to a method for facilitating the updating of a language model, including receiving, at a client device, via a microphone, an audio message corresponding to speech of a user; communicating, to a first remote server, the audio message; receiving, at the client device, a result, transcribed at the first remote server using an automatic speech recognition system (ASR), from the audio message; receiving, at the client device from the user, an affirmation of the result; storing, at the client device, the result in association with an identifier corresponding to the audio message; and communicating, to a second remote server, the stored result together with the identifier.

In a feature of this aspect, the method further includes, subsequent to said step of communicating the stored result to the second remote server, updating, using the stored result and the identifier, a language model. In another feature of this aspect, the first remote server and the second remote server are the same remote server. In another feature of this aspect, the step of storing, at the client device, the result and identifier includes storing, at the client device, the result and identifier as a data stream. In yet another feature of this aspect, the step of communicating the stored result to the second remote server comprises communicating the data stream to the second remote server. In a further feature of this aspect, the identifier corresponding to the audio message includes the audio message. In still another feature of this aspect, the identifier corresponding to the audio message is configured to allow the remote server to locate the original audio stream. In another feature, the identifier includes a reference that allows the remote server to locate the audio message.

In still another feature, the method further has transcribing, at the first remote server using an automatic speech recognition system (ASR), a result from the audio message. In yet another feature of this aspect, the step of receiving, at the client device, a result comprises receiving, at the client device, a result and alternative result matrix transcribed, at the first remote server using an automatic speech recognition system (ASR), from the audio message. In a further feature of this aspect, the step of communicating, to the second remote server, the stored result together with the identifier comprises waiting, to communicate the stored result to the second remote server, until the next time the client device contacts the second remote server. In another feature of this aspect, the step of communicating, to the second remote server, the stored result together with the identifier comprises waiting for user instruction to communicate the stored result to the second remote server. In a further feature of this aspect, the step of communicating, to the second remote server, the stored result together with the identifier includes waiting, for an API call, to communicate the stored result to the second remote server.

The present invention according to another aspect relates to a method for facilitating the updating of a language model, including receiving, at a client device, via a microphone, an audio message corresponding to speech of a user; communicating, to a first remote server, the audio message; receiving, at the client device, a result and alternative result matrix transcribed, at the first remote server using an automatic speech recognition system (ASR), from the audio message; receiving, at the client device from the user, a manual correction of the result; storing, at the client device, the corrected result in association with an identifier corresponding to the audio message; and communicating, to a second remote server, the stored result together with the identifier.

In a feature of this aspect of the present invention, the step of receiving, at the client device, a manual correction includes receiving, at the client device, an affirmation of an alternative fragment result of the alternative result matrix. In another feature of this aspect, the step of receiving, at the client device, a manual correction includes receiving, at the client device, text input manually by the user using a keypad. In still another feature of this aspect, the step of receiving, at the client device, a manual correction includes receiving, at the client device, text input manually by the user using a touchscreen. In yet another feature of this aspect of the present invention, the identifier corresponding to the audio message comprises the audio message. In still a further feature of this aspect, the identifier corresponding to the audio message is configured to allow the remote server to locate the original audio message.

The present invention according to another aspect relates to a method for facilitating the updating of a language model, including receiving, at a client device, via a microphone, a first audio message corresponding to speech of a user; communicating, to a first remote server, the first audio message; receiving, at the client device, a first result, transcribed at the first remote server using an automatic speech recognition system (ASR), from the first audio message; receiving, at the client device from the user, a disapproval of the first result; receiving, at a client device, via a microphone, a second audio message corresponding to speech of the user; communicating, to the first remote server, the second audio message; receiving, at the client device, a result, transcribed at the first remote server using an automatic speech recognition system (ASR), from the second audio message; receiving, at the client device from the user, an affirmation of the second result; storing, at the client device, the second result in association with an identifier corresponding to the audio message; and communicating, to a second remote server, the stored result together with the identifier.

The present invention according to one aspect relates to a method for gathering data, including the step of returning a data stream from a client device to a remote server; wherein the data stream includes an affirmed text string previously transcribed from an audio stream via voice recognition software into a result; which result was then either affirmed by a user, or else corrected and then affirmed by a user; and wherein the data stream further includes an audio identifier.

In a feature of this aspect, the result includes a text string representing the most likely transcription of the audio stream. In another feature of this aspect, the result includes a matrix or set of matrices of possible transcription alternatives. In another feature of this aspect, the result includes both a text string representing the most likely transcription of the audio stream, and a matrix or set of matrices of possible transcription alternatives.

In a feature of this aspect, the audio identifier includes the entire prior audio stream that was transcribed. In another feature of this aspect, the audio identifier includes a portion of the prior audio stream that was transcribed. In another feature of this aspect, the audio identifier includes a reference that allows the remote server to locate the original audio stream. In another feature of this aspect, the audio identifier includes a reference that allows the remote server to locate a portion of the original audio stream. In another feature of this aspect, the audio identifier includes a reference that allows the remote server to locate information regarding the transcription of the original audio stream.

In a feature of this aspect, the data stream is transmitted via the world wide web. In a feature of this aspect, the data stream is transmitted via the internet. In a feature of this aspect, the data stream is transmitted via an intranet. In a feature of this aspect, the data stream is transmitted via conventional telephone lines. In a feature of this aspect, the data stream is transmitted wirelessly. In a feature of this aspect, the data stream is transmitted via a communication service provider of the client and/or the internet.

In a feature of this aspect, the client-server communication protocol is HTTP. In a feature of this aspect, the client-server communication protocol is HTTPS. Alternatively, in a feature of this aspect, the client-server communication uses direct socket connections via UDP.

In a feature of this aspect, the client device has a microphone, a speaker, and a display. In a feature of this aspect, the client device includes a keypad having a plurality of buttons. In a feature of this aspect, the client device is a cell phone. In a feature of this aspect, the client device is a PDA. In a feature of this aspect, the client device is a laptop computer. In a feature of this aspect, the client device is a desktop computer. In a feature of this aspect, the client device is an IP phone.

In a feature of this aspect, the method further includes the step of using the audio identifier and the affirmed text string to update the intelligence and accuracy of voice recognition software. In a feature of this aspect, the method further includes the step of saving the audio identifier and the affirmed text string for later use in updating voice recognition software. In a feature of this aspect, the method further includes the steps of determining whether or not the audio identifier includes the complete audio stream, locating the complete audio string using the audio identifier if it does not, and saving the audio stream and the affirmed text string for later use in updating voice recognition software.

In a feature of this aspect, the step of returning a data stream from the client device to the remote server is delayed until the next time the client device contacts the remote server with a transcription request. In a feature of this aspect, the step of returning a data stream from the client device to a remote server occurs as soon as the data stream is prepared.

The present invention according to another aspect relates to a method for returning data to a remote server, including the step of returning a data stream from a client device to a remote server; wherein the data stream includes an affirmed text string previously transcribed from an audio stream via voice recognition software into a result; which result was then either affirmed by a user, or else corrected and then affirmed by a user; and wherein the data stream further includes an audio identifier.

In a feature of this aspect, the result includes a text string representing the most likely transcription of the audio stream. In another feature of this aspect, the result includes a matrix or set of matrices of possible transcription alternatives. In another feature of this aspect, the result includes both a text string representing the most likely transcription of the audio stream, and a matrix or set of matrices of possible transcription alternatives.

In a feature of this aspect, the audio identifier includes the entire prior audio stream that was transcribed. In another feature of this aspect, the audio identifier includes a portion of the prior audio stream that was transcribed. In another feature of this aspect, the audio identifier includes a reference that allows the remote server to locate the original audio stream. In another feature of this aspect, the audio identifier includes a reference that allows the remote server to locate a portion of the original audio stream. In another feature of this aspect, the audio identifier includes a reference that allows the remote server to locate information regarding the transcription of the original audio stream.

In a feature of this aspect, the data stream is transmitted via the world wide web. In a feature of this aspect, the data stream is transmitted via the internet. In a feature of this aspect, the data stream is transmitted via an intranet. In a feature of this aspect, the data stream is transmitted via conventional telephone lines. In a feature of this aspect, the data stream is transmitted wirelessly. In a feature of this aspect, the data stream is transmitted via a communication service provider of the client and/or the internet.

In a feature of this aspect, the client-server communication protocol is HTTP. In a feature of this aspect, the client-server communication protocol is HTTPS. Alternatively, in a feature of this aspect, the client-server communication uses direct socket connections via UDP.

In a feature of this aspect, the client device has a microphone, a speaker, and a display. In a feature of this aspect, the client device includes a keypad having a plurality of buttons. In a feature of this aspect, the client device is a cell phone. In a feature of this aspect, the client device is a PDA. In a feature of this aspect, the client device is a laptop computer. In a feature of this aspect, the client device is a desktop computer. In a feature of this aspect, the client device is an IP phone.

In a feature of this aspect, the method further includes the step of using the audio identifier and the affirmed text string to update the intelligence and accuracy of voice recognition software. In a feature of this aspect, the method further includes the step of saving the audio identifier and the affirmed text string for later use in updating voice recognition software. In a feature of this aspect, the method further includes the steps of determining whether or not the audio identifier includes the complete audio stream, locating the complete audio string using the audio identifier if it does not, and saving the audio stream and the affirmed text string for later use in updating voice recognition software.

In a feature of this aspect, the step of returning a data stream from the client device to the remote server is delayed until the next time the client device contacts the remote server with a transcription request. In a feature of this aspect, the step of returning a data stream from the client device to a remote server occurs as soon as the data stream is prepared.

The present invention according to another aspect relates to a system of returning data to a remote server, comprising a client device with computer readable instructions stored in memory; the instructions including an instruction to return a data stream to a remote server; wherein the data stream includes an affirmed text string previously transcribed from an audio stream via voice recognition software into a result; which result was then either affirmed by a user, or else corrected and then affirmed by a user; and wherein the data stream further includes an audio identifier.

In a feature of this aspect, the result includes a text string representing the most likely transcription of the audio stream. In another feature of this aspect, the result includes a matrix or set of matrices of possible transcription alternatives. In another feature of this aspect, the result includes both a text string representing the most likely transcription of the audio stream, and a matrix or set of matrices of possible transcription alternatives.

In a feature of this aspect, the audio identifier includes the entire audio stream that was previously transcribed. In another feature of this aspect, the audio identifier includes a portion of the audio stream that was previously transcribed. In another feature of this aspect, the audio identifier includes a reference that allows the remote server to locate the original audio stream. In another feature of this aspect, the audio identifier includes a reference that allows the remote server to locate a portion of the original audio stream. In another feature of this aspect, the audio identifier includes a reference that allows the remote server to locate information regarding the transcription of the original audio stream.

In a feature of this aspect, the data stream is transmitted via the world wide web. In a feature of this aspect, the data stream is transmitted via the internet. In a feature of this aspect, the data stream is transmitted via an intranet. In a feature of this aspect, the data stream is transmitted via conventional telephone lines. In a feature of this aspect, the data stream is transmitted wirelessly. In a feature of this aspect, the data stream is transmitted via a communication service provider of the client and/or the internet.

In a feature of this aspect, the client-server communication protocol is HTTP. In a feature of this aspect, the client-server communication protocol is HTTPS. Alternatively, in a feature of this aspect, the client-server communication uses direct socket connections via UDP.

In a feature of this aspect, the client device has a microphone, a speaker, and a display. In a feature of this aspect, the client device includes a keypad having a plurality of buttons. In a feature of this aspect, the client device is a cell phone. In a feature of this aspect, the client device is a PDA. In a feature of this aspect, the client device is a laptop computer. In a feature of this aspect, the client device is a desktop computer. In a feature of this aspect, the client device is an IP phone.

In a feature of this aspect, the instructions further include an instruction not to return the data stream to the remote server until another transcription request is initiated. In another feature of this aspect, the instructions further include an instruction to return the data stream to the remote server as soon as the data stream is prepared.

The present invention according to another aspect relates to a system of gathering data, comprising a remote server with computer readable instructions stored in memory; the instructions including an instruction to await a data stream from at least one client device; wherein the data stream includes an affirmed text string previously transcribed from an audio stream via voice recognition software into a result; which result was then either affirmed by a user, or else corrected and then affirmed by a user; and wherein the data stream further includes an audio identifier.

In a feature of this aspect, the result includes a text string representing the most likely transcription of the audio stream. In another feature of this aspect, the result includes a matrix or set of matrices of possible transcription alternatives. In another feature of this aspect, the result includes both a text string representing the most likely transcription of the audio stream, and a matrix or set of matrices of possible transcription alternatives.

In a feature of this aspect, the audio identifier includes the entire audio stream that was previously transcribed. In another feature of this aspect, the audio identifier includes a portion of the audio stream that was previously transcribed. In another feature of this aspect, the audio identifier includes a reference that allows the remote server to locate the original audio stream. In another feature of this aspect, the audio identifier includes a reference that allows the remote server to locate a portion of the original audio stream. In another feature of this aspect, the audio identifier includes a reference that allows the remote server to locate information regarding the transcription of the original audio stream.

In a feature of this aspect, the data stream is transmitted via the world wide web. In a feature of this aspect, the data stream is transmitted via the internet. In a feature of this aspect, the data stream is transmitted via an intranet. In a feature of this aspect, the data stream is transmitted via conventional telephone lines. In a feature of this aspect, the data stream is transmitted wirelessly. In a feature of this aspect, the data stream is transmitted via a communication service provider of the client and/or the internet.

In a feature of this aspect, the client-server communication protocol is HTTP. In a feature of this aspect, the client-server communication protocol is HTTPS. Alternatively, in a feature of this aspect, the client-server communication uses direct socket connections via UDP.

In a feature of this aspect, the client device has a microphone, a speaker, and a display. In a feature of this aspect, the client device includes a keypad having a plurality of buttons. In a feature of this aspect, the client device is a cell phone. In a feature of this aspect, the client device is a PDA. In a feature of this aspect, the client device is a laptop computer. In a feature of this aspect, the client device is a desktop computer. In a feature of this aspect, the client device is an IP phone.

In a feature of this aspect, the instructions further include an instruction to use the audio identifier and the affirmed text string to update the intelligence and accuracy of voice recognition software. In a feature of this aspect, the instructions further include an instruction to save the audio identifier and the affirmed text string for later use in updating voice recognition software. In a feature of this aspect, the instructions further include an instruction to determine whether or not the audio identifier includes the complete audio stream, locate the complete audio string using the audio identifier if it does not, and save the audio stream and the affirmed text string for later use in updating voice recognition software.

In a feature of this aspect, the instructions further include an instruction not to return the data stream to the remote server until another transcription request is initiated. In another feature of this aspect, the instructions further include an instruction to return the data stream to the remote server as soon as the data stream is prepared.

Further areas of applicability of the present invention will become apparent from the detailed description provided hereinafter. It should be understood that the detailed description and specific examples, while indicating the preferred embodiment of the invention, are intended for purposes of illustration only and are not intended to limit the scope of the invention.

VI. BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

Further aspects, features, embodiments, and advantages of the present invention will become apparent from the following detailed description with reference to the drawings, wherein:

FIG. 1 is a block diagram of a communication system in accordance with a preferred embodiment of the present invention;

FIG. 2 is a block diagram of a communication system in accordance with another preferred embodiment of the present invention;

FIG. 3 is a block diagram illustrating communications between two users via a portion of the communication system of FIG. 1;

FIG. 4 is a block diagram of an exemplary implementation of the system of FIG. 1;

FIG. 5 is a table listing various possible transcription results for each fragment or portion of the utterance ;

FIGS. 6A-6E are graphical depictions, on a transmitting device, of the transcription of the utterance of FIG. 3, illustrating the selection and replacement of one of the fragment results reached by the ASR engine for one portion of the utterance;

FIG. 7 is a graphical depiction, on a transmitting device, of the transcription of the utterance of FIG. 3, illustrating the various alternatives reached by the ASR engine for each portion of the utterance;

FIG. 8 is a high-level flowchart illustrating the operation of such a process;

FIG. 9 is an operational flow diagram of a method for gathering data in accordance with one or more preferred embodiments of the present invention;

FIG. 10 is an operational flow diagram of a method for gathering data in accordance with one or more preferred embodiments of the present invention;

FIG. 11 is an operational flow diagram of a process for gathering data in accordance with one or more preferred embodiments of the present invention;

FIG. 12 is a block diagram of the system architecture of one commercial implementation;

FIG. 13 is a block diagram of a portion of FIG. 12;

FIG. 14 is a typical header section of an HTTP request from the client in the commercial implementation;

FIG. 15 illustrates exemplary protocol details for a request for a location of a login server and a subsequent response;

FIG. 16 illustrates exemplary protocol details for a login request and a subsequent response;

FIG. 17 illustrates exemplary protocol details for a submit request and a subsequent response;

FIG. 18 illustrates exemplary protocol details for a results request and a subsequent response;

FIG. 19 illustrates exemplary protocol details for an XML hierarchy returned in response to a results request;

FIG. 20 illustrates exemplary protocol details for a text to speech request and a subsequent response;

FIG. 21 illustrates exemplary protocol details for a correct request;

FIG. 22 illustrates exemplary protocol details for a ping request; and

FIG. 23 illustrates exemplary protocol details for a debug request.

VII. DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS

As a preliminary matter, it will readily be understood by one having ordinary skill in the relevant art (“Ordinary Artisan”) that the present invention has broad utility and application. Furthermore, any embodiment discussed and identified as being “preferred” is considered to be part of a best mode contemplated for carrying out the present invention. Other embodiments also may be discussed for additional illustrative purposes in providing a full and enabling disclosure of the present invention. Moreover, many embodiments, such as adaptations, variations, modifications, and equivalent arrangements, will be implicitly disclosed by the embodiments described herein and fall within the scope of the present invention.

Accordingly, while the present invention is described herein in detail in relation to one or more embodiments, it is to be understood that this disclosure is illustrative and exemplary of the present invention, and is made merely for the purposes of providing a full and enabling disclosure of the present invention. The detailed disclosure herein of one or more embodiments is not intended, nor is it to be construed, to limit the scope of patent protection afforded the present invention, which scope is to be defined by the claims and the equivalents thereof. It is not intended that the scope of patent protection afforded the present invention be defined by reading into any claim a limitation found herein that does not explicitly appear in the claim itself.

Thus, for example, any sequence(s) and/or temporal order of steps of various processes or methods that are described herein are illustrative and not restrictive. Accordingly, it should be understood that, although steps of various processes or methods may be shown and described as being in a sequence or temporal order, the steps of any such processes or methods are not limited to being carried out in any particular sequence or order, absent an indication otherwise. Indeed, the steps in such processes or methods generally may be carried out in various different sequences and orders while still falling within the scope of the present invention. Accordingly, it is intended that the scope of patent protection afforded the present invention is to be defined by the appended claims rather than the description set forth herein.

Additionally, it is important to note that each term used herein refers to that which the Ordinary Artisan would understand such term to mean based on the contextual use of such term herein. To the extent that the meaning of a term used herein—as understood by the Ordinary Artisan based on the contextual use of such term—differs in any way from any particular dictionary definition of such term, it is intended that the meaning of the term as understood by the Ordinary Artisan should prevail.

Furthermore, it is important to note that, as used herein, “a” and “an” each generally denotes “at least one,” but does not exclude a plurality unless the contextual use dictates otherwise. Thus, reference to “a picnic basket having an apple” describes “a picnic basket having at least one apple” as well as “a picnic basket having apples.” In contrast, reference to “a picnic basket having a single apple” describes “a picnic basket having only one apple.”

When used herein to join a list of items, “or” denotes “at least one of the items,” but does not exclude a plurality of items of the list. Thus, reference to “a picnic basket having cheese or crackers” describes “a picnic basket having cheese without crackers”, “a picnic basket having crackers without cheese”, and “a picnic basket having both cheese and crackers.” Finally, when used herein to join a list of items, “and” denotes “all of the items of the list.” Thus, reference to “a picnic basket having cheese and crackers” describes “a picnic basket having cheese, wherein the picnic basket further has crackers,” as well as describes “a picnic basket having crackers, wherein the picnic basket further has cheese.”

Referring now to the drawings, in which like numerals represent like components throughout the several views, the preferred embodiments of the present invention are next described. The following description of the preferred embodiment(s) is merely exemplary in nature and is in no way intended to limit the invention, its application, or uses.

FIG. 1 is a block diagram of a communication system 10 in accordance with a preferred embodiment of the present invention. As shown therein, the communication system 10 includes at least one transmitting device 12 and at least one receiving device 14, one or more network systems 16 for connecting the transmitting device 12 to the receiving device 14, and an automatic speech recognition (“ASR”) system 18, including an ASR engine. Transmitting and receiving devices 12,14 may include cell phones 21, smart phones 22, PDAs 23, tablet notebooks 24, various desktop and laptop computers 25,26,27, and the like, one or more of which may be a handheld device. One or more of the devices 12,14, such as the illustrated iMac and laptop computers 25,26, may connect to the network systems 16 via a wireless access point 28. The various transmitting and receiving devices 12,14 (one or both types of which being sometimes referred to herein as “client devices”) may be of any conventional design and manufacture.

FIG. 2 is a block diagram of a communication system 60 in accordance with another preferred embodiment of the present invention. This system 60 is similar to the system 10 of FIG. 1, except that the ASR system 18 of FIG. 1 has been omitted and the ASR engine has instead been incorporated into the various transmitting devices 12, including cell phones 61, smart phones 62, PDAs 63, tablet notebooks 64, various desktop and laptop computers 65,66,67, and the like.

It will be appreciated that the illustrations of FIGS. 1 and 2 are intended primarily to provide context in which the inventive features of the present invention may be placed. A more complete explanation of one or more system architectures implementing such systems is provided, elsewhere herein, in the incorporated applications and/or in the incorporated Appendices attached hereto. Furthermore, in the context of text messaging, the communication systems 10,60 each preferably includes, inter alia, a telecommunications network. In the context of instant messaging, the communications systems 10,60 each preferably includes, inter alia, the Internet.

FIG. 3 is a block diagram illustrating communications between two users 32,34 via a portion of the communication system 10 of FIG. 1. As shown therein, a first user 32, sometimes referred to herein as a “transmitting user,” is communicating with a second user 34, sometimes referred to herein as a “receiving user,” by way of respective transmitting and receiving devices 12,14. More particularly, the transmitting user 32 uses his transmitting device 12 to initiate text messages that are transmitted to, and received by, the receiving user 34 via her receiving device 14. In the context of text messaging, the transmitting user 32 may send text messages, using his transmitting device 12, via SMS, and the receiving user 34 receives text messages, sent via SMS, on her receiving device 14. In the context of instant messaging, the transmitting user 32 may send instant messages via an IM client using his transmitting device 12, and the receiving user 34 receives instant messages on his receiving device 14, via an IM client, using his transmitting device 12, and the receiving user 34 receives instant messages, via an IM client, on her receiving device 14.

In either case, the first user 32 speaks an utterance 36 into the transmitting device 12, and the recorded speech audio is sent to the ASR system 18. In FIG. 3, the utterance 36 is “That man in here is a serial killer.” The ASR engine in the ASR system 18 attempts to recognize and transcribe the speech into text.

In at least some embodiments, the transmitting user 32 in FIG. 3 may generate text messages by speaking into his transmitting device 12 and causing his utterances to be converted to text for communicating to the receiving device 14. One or more systems and methods for carrying out such a process are described, for example, in the aforementioned U.S. Patent Application Pub. No. US 2007/0239837, but are at least partially described herein. More particularly, FIG. 4 may be understood to be a block diagram of an exemplary implementation of the system 10 of FIG. 1. In this implementation, the transmitting device 12 is a mobile phone, the ASR system 18 is implemented in one or more backend servers 160, and the one or more network systems 16 include transceiver towers 130, one or more mobile communication service providers 140 (operating or joint or independent control) and the Internet 150. The backend server 160 is or may be placed in communication with the mobile phone 12 via the mobile communication service provider 140 and the Internet 150. The mobile phone has a microphone, a speaker and a display.

A first transceiver tower 130A is positioned between the mobile phone 12 (or the user 32 of the mobile phone 12) and the mobile communication service provider 140, for receiving an audio message (V1), a text message (T3) and/or a verified text message (V/T1) from one of the mobile phone 12 and the mobile communication service provider 140 and transmitting it (V2, T4, V/T2) to the other of the mobile phone 12 and the mobile communication service provider 140. A second transceiver tower 130B is positioned between the mobile communication service provider 140 and mobile devices 170, generally defined as receiving devices 14 equipped to communicate wirelessly via mobile communication service provider 140, for receiving a verified text message (V/T3) from the mobile communication service provider 140 and transmitting it (V5 and T5) to the mobile devices 170. In at least some embodiments, the mobile devices 170 are adapted for receiving a text message converted from an audio message created in the mobile phone 12. Additionally, in at least some embodiments, the mobile devices 170 are also capable of receiving an audio message from the mobile phone 12. The mobile devices 170 include, but are not limited to, a pager, a palm PC, a mobile phone, or the like.

The system 10 also includes software, as disclosed below in more detail, installed in the mobile phone 12 and the backend server 160 for causing the mobile phone 12 and/or the backend server 160 to perform the following functions. The first step is to initialize the mobile phone 12 to establish communication between the mobile phone 12 and the backend server 160, which includes initializing a desired application from the mobile phone 12 and logging into a user account in the backend server 160 from the mobile phone 12. Then, the user 32 presses and holds one of the buttons of the mobile phone 12 and speaks an utterance 36, thus generating an audio message, V1. At this stage, the audio message V1 is recorded in the mobile phone 12. By releasing the button, the recorded audio message V1 is sent to the backend server 160 through the mobile communication service provider 140.

In the exemplary embodiment of the present invention as shown in FIG. 4, the recorded audio message V1 is first transmitted to the first transceiver tower 130A from the mobile phone 12. The first transceiver tower 130A outputs the audio message V1 into an audio message V2 that is, in turn, transmitted to the mobile communication service provider 140. Then the mobile communication service provider 140 outputs the audio message V2 into an audio message V3 and transmits it (V3) to the Internet 150. The Internet 150 outputs the audio message V3 into an audio message V4 and transmits it (V4) to the backend server 160. The content of all the audio messages V1-V4 is identical.

The backend server 160 then converts the audio message V4 into a text message, T1, and/or a digital signal, D1, in the backend server 160 by means of a speech recognition algorithm including a grammar algorithm and/or a transcription algorithm. The text message T1 and the digital signal D1 correspond to two different formats of the audio message V4. The text message T1 and/or the digital signal D1 are sent back to the Internet 150 that outputs them into a text message T2 and a digital signal D2, respectively.

The digital signal D2 is transmitted to a digital receiver 180, generally defined as a receiving device 14 equipped to communicate with the Internet and capable of receiving the digital signal D2. In at least some embodiments, the digital receiver 180 is adapted for receiving a digital signal converted from an audio message created in the mobile phone 12. Additionally, in at least some embodiments, the digital receiver 180 is also capable of receiving an audio message from the mobile phone 12. A conventional computer is one example of a digital receiver 180. In this context, a digital signal D2 may represent, for example, an email or instant message.

It should be understood that, depending upon the configuration of the backend server 160 and software installed on the mobile phone 12, and potentially based upon the system set up or preferences of the user 32, the digital signal D2 can either be transmitted directly from the backend server 160 or it can be provided back to the mobile phone 12 for review and acceptance by the user 32 before it is sent on to the digital receiver 180.

The text message T2 is sent to the mobile communication service provider 140 that outputs it (T2) into a text message T3. The output text message T3 is then transmitted to the first transceiver tower 130A. The first transceiver tower 130A then transmits it (T3) to the mobile phone 12 in the form of a text message T4. It is noted that the substantive content of all the text messages T1-T4 may be identical, which are the corresponding text form of the audio messages V1-V4.

Upon receiving the text message T4, the user 32 verifies it and sends the verified text message V/T1 to the first transceiver tower 130A that in turn, transmits it to the mobile communication service provider 140 in the form of a verified text V/T2. The verified text V/T2 is transmitted to the second transceiver tower 130B in the form of a verified text V/T3 from the mobile communication service provider 140. Then, the transceiver tower 130B transmits the verified text V/T3 to the mobile devices 170.

In at least one implementation, the audio message is simultaneously transmitted to the backend server 160 from the mobile phone 12, when the user 32 speaks to the mobile phone 12. In this circumstance, it is preferred that no audio message is recorded in the mobile phone 12, although it is possible that an audio message could be both transmitted and recorded.

Such a system 10 may be utilized to convert an audio message into a text message. In at least one implementation, this may be accomplished by first initializing a transmitting device so that the transmitting device is capable of communicating with a backend server 160. Second, a user 32 speaks to or into the client device 12 so as to create a stream of an audio message. The audio message can be recorded and then transmitted to the backend server 160, or the audio message can be simultaneously transmitted to the backend server 160 through a client-server communication protocol. Streaming may be accomplished according to processes described elsewhere herein and, in particular, in FIG. 4, and accompanying text, of the aforementioned U.S. Patent Application Pub. No. US 2007/0239837. The transmitted audio message is converted into the text message in the backend server 160. The converted text message is then sent back to the client device 12. Upon the user's verification, the converted text message is forwarded to one or more recipients 34 and their respective receiving devices 14, where the converted text message may be displayed on the device 14. Incoming messages may be handled, for example, according to processes described elsewhere herein and, in particular, in FIG. 2, and accompanying text, of the aforementioned U.S. Patent Application Pub. No. US 2007/0239837.

Still further, in at least one implementation, one or both types of client device 12,14 may be located through a global positioning system (GPS); and listing locations, proximate to the position of the client device 12,14, of a target of interest may be presented in the converted text message.

Furthermore, in converting speech to text, speech transcription performance indications may be provided to the receiving user 34 in accordance with the disclosure of U.S. patent application Ser. No. 12/197,213, filed Aug. 22, 2008 and entitled “CONTINUOUS SPEECH TRANSCRIPTION PERFORMANCE INDICATION,” which, together with any corresponding patent application publications thereof, is hereby incorporated herein by reference.

Additionally, in the context of SMS messaging, the ASR engine preferably makes use of both statistical language models (SLMs) for returning results from the audio data, and finite grammars used to post-process the text results, in accordance with the disclosure of U.S. patent application Ser. No. 12/198,112, filed Aug. 25, 2008 and entitled “FILTERING TRANSCRIPTIONS OF UTTERANCES,” which, together with any corresponding patent application publications thereof, is incorporated herein by reference. This is believed to result in text messages that are formatted in a way that looks more typical of how a human would have typed the text message using a mobile device.

Speech recognition output may be post-processed using metadata, available to the user, in accordance with the disclosure of U.S. Patent Application No. 61/041,219, filed Mar. 31, 2008 and entitled “USE OF METADATA TO POST PROCESS SPEECH RECOGNITION OUTPUT,” a copy of which is attached hereto as Appendix C and is incorporated herein by reference.

The ASR system 18 transmits the text back to the originating device 12. Once this device 12 receives the transcribed text, it preferably displays the message to the transmitting user 32 for verification and editing as necessary, and upon approval by the user, the text may be formatted into a text message or instant message that may be transmitted to a destination communication device such as the receiving device 14 described previously. If not already selected or pre-set, the user 32 selects a desired phone number or other destination address stored in memory on the transmitting device 12 or in a remote server or inputs a number or other address via one or more input elements, and an outgoing message signal corresponding to the number or address is transmitted. Voice commands may be utilized to control such functionality, and such a process may be implemented, for example, in accordance with the disclosure of U.S. patent application Ser. No. 12/355,319, filed Jan. 16, 2009 and entitled “USING A PHYSICAL PHENOMENON DETECTOR TO CONTROL OPERATION OF A SPEECH RECOGNITION ENGINE,” which, together with any corresponding patent application publications thereof, is incorporated herein by reference.

FIG. 5 is a table 400 listing various possible transcription results for each fragment or portion of the utterance 36. More particularly, “that man,” “batman” and “hat man” are listed as possible transcription results for the utterance fragment “That man;” “engineer,” “engine ear,” “in here” and “ear” are presented as possible transcription results for the utterance fragment “in here;” “is a,” “was a” and “was uh” are listed as possible transcription results for the utterance fragment “is a;” “cereal,” “serial,” “see real” and “surreal” are listed as a possible transcription results for the utterance fragment “serial;” and “filler,” “killer,” “biller” and “fuller” are listed as possible transcription results for the utterance fragment “killer.” It will be appreciated that each fragment is presented in conjunction with a confidence level, expressed as a percentage, representing the calculated relative confidence the ASR system 18 has that that fragment is accurate. In FIG. 5, the possible transcription results for each fragment or portion of the utterance 36 are presented in descending order of confidence. It will be further appreciated that only those results in which the confidence level is 10% or above are shown in the table 400, but that many other possible results may be considered as well.

When transcription is complete, the fragment results having the highest confidence levels are presented to the user 32 in the order in which the utterance fragments were spoken. In particular, for each fragment of the utterance, the fragment result having the highest confidence level is preferably presented to the user 32 such that the overall transcribed utterance represents the most likely transcription result as measured by the confidence levels of the respective fragment results.

If the transcribed utterance thus presented is not the one desired by the user 32, the user 32 may then take action to edit or correct the result. For example, the user 32 may choose to edit one or more of the fragment results. FIGS. 6A-6E are graphical depictions, on a transmitting device 12, of the transcription of the utterance 36 of FIG. 3, illustrating the selection and replacement of one of the fragment results reached by the ASR engine for one portion of the utterance 36. In FIGS. 6A-6E, it all of the fragment results having a confidence level of 10% or more are available to the user 32 for selection and replacement of the corresponding portion of the transcribed utterance. In FIG. 6A, the complete transcribed utterance in which the ASR engine has the greatest confidence is first presented to the user 32. It will be appreciated that this proposed transcription is not accurate, in that the ASR engine has returned “engineer” as the most likely fragment result for “in here,” “cereal” as the most likely fragment result for “serial,” and “filler” as the most likely fragment result for “killer.”

In FIG. 6B, the user 32 begins correcting the transcribed utterance by selecting one of the fragment results for editing or correction. In particular, the user 32 has selected the utterance fragment with the final result “engineer” for replacement, thereby causing a drop-down menu or list to appear. Referring again to FIG. 5, it is to be understood that the items in the drop-down list in FIG. 6B are preferably the fragment results for that portion of the utterance 36 that had confidence levels of 10% or more. In FIG. 6C, the user 32 has selected one of those alternative fragment results (“in here”) to replace the one returned by the ASR engine. In FIG. 6D, the user 32 has gone ahead and replaced “engineer” with “in here,” producing the edited final result of “that man in here is a cereal filler.” By further using the same process to replace the final result “cereal” with “serial” and the final result “filler” with “killer,” the user 32 is able to reach the intended result of “that man in here is a serial killer,” as shown in FIG. 6E. Selection may be accomplished in any conventional manner, including manipulation of input keys, buttons or the like on the device 12, use of a stylus or other external tool, voice activation, or the like.

In another approach, the user 32 may be presented with all of the fragment results for all of the portions of the transcribed utterance at the same time. FIG. 7 is a graphical depiction, on a transmitting device 12, of the transcription of the utterance 36 of FIG. 3, illustrating the various alternatives reached by the ASR engine for each portion of the utterance 36. The final transcription result, representing the result in which the ASR engine has the highest confidence level, is presented at the top. Other fragment results returned by the ASR engine for each of the various portions of the utterance 36 are presented beneath the highest-confidence result. More particularly, “batman” and “hat man” are presented as alternative fragment results for the utterance fragment that became “that man;” “engine ear,” “in here” and “ear” are presented as alternative fragment results for the utterance fragment that became “engineer;” “was a” and “was uh” are presented as alternative fragment results for the utterance fragment that became “is a;” “serial,” “see real” and “surreal” are presented as alternative fragment results for the utterance fragment that became “cereal;” and “killer,” “biller” and “fuller” are presented as alternative fragment results for the utterance fragment that became “filler.”

In at least some embodiments, information about the order in which the ASR engine reached the results is provided in the form of animation or via other means, and such a process may be implemented, for example, in accordance with the disclosure of U.S. patent application Ser. No. 12/400,723, filed Mar. 9, 2009 and entitled “USE OF INTERMEDIATE SPEECH TRANSCRIPTION RESULTS IN EDITING FINAL SPEECH TRANSCRIPTION RESULTS,” which, together with any corresponding patent application publications thereof, is incorporated herein by reference. For example, incremental results may be displayed in an animated, real-time visual display, which then updates frequently as new information becomes available. In this way, the user 32 is exposed to most or all of the options that the ASR engine considered during transcription and can more easily navigate to those options, after transcription is complete, in order to select a transcription option different from the one chosen by the engine as having the highest confidence value. Various techniques for displaying real time information about preliminary and intermediate transcription results are described in the aforementioned patent application.

Referring again to FIG. 7, it will be appreciated that each utterance fragment or portion, and its corresponding alternate transcriptions, may be a single word, or may be a phrase made up of multiple words. The drop-down lists, or any other graphical arrangement of alternate transcription fragments, can be displayed in an animated fashion after the entire transcription has been received. The lists of alternate transcription fragments can then be removed from the display leaving only the highest-confidence results visible.

By providing the user 32 with the ability to make edits and corrections to the results returned by the ASR engine, the system 10 gains the ability to use information about the edits and corrections made by the user 32 to update the LM(s) utilized by the ASR engine to produce the transcription. FIG. 8 is a high-level flowchart illustrating the operation of such a process 700. As shown therein, at least a portion of the process 700 begins at step 705 when the user 32 records an utterance 36 and sends the recorded utterance 36 to the ASR system 18 for transcription. At step 710, the ASR system 18 transcribes the utterance 36 using the current versions of one or more acoustic model (AM) and one or more statistical language model (LM) and then returns the transcribed utterance to the user's device. At step 715, the user edits and corrects the transcribed utterance as desired, and at step 720 the edited and corrected transcription is provided to a text message, voicemail, or other application. Importantly, however, at step 725 information regarding the edits and corrections made by the user is provided to the LMs used in the transcription process, or in some cases to other LMs as well, and at step 730 the information is used to update the LMs for further use, represented by the loop back to step 705.

FIGS. 9 and 10 are operational flow diagrams of methods for gathering data 10 in accordance with one or more preferred embodiments of the present invention. Each method utilizes a client device 12; however, the methods differ in that FIG. 9 illustrates a preferred method for use with a client device 12 for which power management is desirable, such as a battery powered device, while FIG. 10 illustrates a preferred method for use with a client device 12 without as great of a need for power management, such as a device operating on AC power.

In either method, a user's 32 speech is captured, using for example, a microphone, at a client device 12 as an audio message. The audio message is communicated to a remote server 40, which may or may not be associated with the backend server 160 or even with the ASR system 18. The audio message is then processed utilizing the ASR system 18. The ASR system 18 transcribes the audio message into a string of text, i.e. a result, along with an alternative result matrix. The ASR system 18 communicates the result, together with the alternative result matrix, back to the remote server 40, which then communicates the result, together with the alternative result matrix, to the client device 12. The client device 12 displays the result to the user 32, who determines whether the result is an acceptable transcription of her speech.

If the user 32 determines that the result is satisfactory, then the user 32 affirms the result and the client device 12 utilizes the affirmed result as a text string in whatever manner the user 32 desires. The client device 12 additionally saves the affirmed result, together with an identifier comprising the original audio message or an identifier configured to allow the server 40 to locate the original audio message, as a data stream. In the preferred method of FIG. 9, the data stream is communicated to the server 40 the next time the client device contacts the server, while in the preferred method of FIG. 10, the data stream is sent to the server 40 when the user 32, or an application running at the client device 12, desires, via an API call.

If the user 32 determines that the result is not satisfactory, then the user 32 either attempts to correct the result by speaking into the client device 12 again, in which case the process will repeat, or else the user 32 manually corrects the result. The user 32 manually corrects the result by either selecting an alternate result using the alternative result matrix, or else by typing in the text he wishes. The user continues this loop until he affirms a result, or manually corrects a result. The client device 12 then utilizes the affirmed or corrected result (“selected result”) as a text string in whatever manner the user 32 desires. The client device 12 additionally saves the selected result, together with an identifier comprising the original audio message or an identifier configured to allow the server to locate the original audio message, as a data stream. In the preferred method of FIG. 9, the data stream is communicated to the server 40 the next time the client device contacts the server, while in the preferred method of FIG. 10, the data stream is sent to the server 40 when the user 32, or an application running at the client device 12, desires, via an API call.

FIG. 11 is an operational flow diagram of a process 1010 for gathering data in accordance with one or more preferred embodiments of the present invention. First, a user device 12 transmits a data stream to a remote server 40. The remote server 40 either updates the LM in the ASR 18, or else saves the data stream for later use.

It will be appreciated that automated transcription of recorded utterances 36 is useful in other environments and applications as well. For example, in another system (not separately illustrated), a user speaks an utterance 36 into a device as a voicemail, and the recorded speech audio is sent to the ASR system 18. In another system, a system element that may or may not be associated directly with the ASR system 18 screens each word in a transcription for the availability of additional content associated with that word, and words for which content is available are enabled such that when one of the content-available words is spoken by the user, the ASR system 18 and/or other system elements recognize the spoken word and the additional content associated with that word is provided to the user, all in accordance with the disclosure of U.S. patent application Ser. No. 12/198,116, filed Aug. 25, 2008 and entitled “FACILITATING PRESENTATION BY MOBILE DEVICE OF ADDITIONAL CONTENT FOR A WORD OR PHRASE UPON UTTERANCE THEREOF,” which, together with any corresponding patent application publications thereof, is incorporated herein by reference. Other applications to which the teachings of the present invention are applicable will be apparent to the Ordinary Artisan.

COMMERCIAL IMPLEMENTATION

One commercial implementation of the foregoing principles utilizes the Yap® and Yap9™ service (collectively, “the Yap service”), available from Yap Inc. of Charlotte, N.C. The Yap service includes one or more web applications and a client device application. The Yap web application is a J2EE application built using Java 5. It is designed to be deployed on an application server like IBM WebSphere Application Server or an equivalent J2EE application server. It is designed to be platform neutral, meaning the server hardware and OS can be anything supported by the web application server (e.g. Windows, Linux, MacOS X).

FIG. 12 is a block diagram of the system architecture of the Yap commercial implementation. With reference to FIG. 12, the operating system may be implemented in Red Hat Enterprise Linux 5 (RHEL 5); the application servers may include the Websphere Application Server Community Edition (WAS-CE) servers, available from IBM; the web server may be an Apache server; the CTTS servlets may include CTTS servlets from Loquendo, including US/UK/ES male and US/UK/ES female; the Grammar ASP may be the latest WebSphere Voice Server, available from IBM; suitable third party ads may be provided by Google; a suitable third party IM system is Google Talk, available from Google; and a suitable database system is the DB2 Express relational database system, available from IBM.

FIG. 13 is a block diagram of the Yap EAR of FIG. 12. The audio codec JARs may include the VoiceAge AMR JAR, available from VoiceAge of Montreal, Quebec and/or the QCELP JAR, available from Qualcomm of San Diego, Calif.

The Yap web application includes a plurality of servlets. As used herein, the term “servlet” refers to an object that receives a request and generates a response based on the request. Usually, a servlet is a small Java program that runs within a Web server. Servlets receive and respond to requests from Web clients, usually across HTTP and/or HTTPS, the HyperText Transfer Protocol. Currently, the Yap web application includes nine servlets: Correct, Debug, Install, Login, Notify, Ping, Results, Submit, and TTS. Each servlet is described below in the order typically encountered.

The communication protocol used for all messages between the Yap client and Yap server applications is HTTP and HTTPS. Using these standard web protocols allows the Yap web application to fit well in a web application container. From the application server's point of view, it cannot distinguish between the Yap client midlet and a typical web browser. This aspect of the design is intentional to convince the web application server that the Yap client midlet is actually a web browser. This allows a user to use features of the J2EE web programming model like session management and HTTPS security. It is also an important feature of the client as the MIDP specification requires that clients are allowed to communicate over HTTP.

More specifically, the Yap client uses the POST method and custom headers to pass values to the server. The body of the HTTP message in most cases is irrelevant with the exception of when the client submits audio data to the server in which case the body contains the binary audio data. The Server responds with an HTTP code indicating the success or failure of the request and data in the body which corresponds to the request being made. Preferably, the server does not depend on custom header messages being delivered to the client as the carriers can, and usually do, strip out unknown header values. FIG. 14 is a typical header section of an HTTP request from the Yap client.

The Yap client is operated via a user interface (UI), known as “Yap9,” which is well suited for implementing methods of converting an audio message into a text message and messaging in mobile environments. Yap9 is a combined UI for SMS and web services (WS) that makes use of the buttons or keys of the client device by assigning a function to each button (sometimes referred to as a “Yap9” button or key). Execution of such functions is carried out by “Yaplets.” This process, and the usage of such buttons, are described elsewhere herein and, in particular, in FIGS. 10A-10D, and accompanying text, of the aforementioned U.S. Patent Application Pub. No. US 2007/0239837.

Usage Process—Install: Installation of the Yap client device application is described in the aforementioned U.S. Patent Application Pub. No. US 2007/0239837 in a subsection titled “Install Process” of a section titled “System Architecture.”

Usage Process—Notify: When a Yap client is installed, the install fails, or the install is canceled by the user, the Notify servlet is sent a message by the phone with a short description. This can be used for tracking purposes and to help diagnose any install problems.

Usage Process—Login: When the Yap midlet is opened, the first step is to create a new session by logging into the Yap web application using the Login servlet. Preferably, however, multiple login servers exist, so as a preliminary step, a request is sent to find a server to log in to. Exemplary protocol details for such a request can be seen in FIG. 15. An HTTP string pointing to a selected login server will be returned in response to this request. It will be appreciated that this selection process functions as a poor man's load balancer.

After receiving this response, a login request is sent. Exemplary protocol details for such a request can be seen in FIG. 16. A cookie holding a session ID is returned in response to this request. The session ID is a pointer to a session object on the server which holds the state of the session. This session data will be discarded after a period determined by server policy.

Sessions are typically maintained using client-side cookies, however, a user cannot rely on the set-cookie header successfully returning to the Yap client because the carrier may remove that header from the HTTP response. The solution to this problem is to use the technique of URL rewriting. To do this, the session ID is extracted from the session API, which is returned to the client in the body of the response. This is called the “Yap Cookie” and is used in every subsequent request from the client. The Yap Cookie looks like this:

;jsessionid=C240B217F2351E3C420A599B0878371A

All requests from the client simply append this cookie to the end of each request and the session is maintained:

/Yap/Submit;jsessionid=C240B217F2351E3C420A599B0878371A

Usage Process—Submit: After receiving a session ID, audio data may be submitted. The user presses and holds one of the Yap-9 buttons, speaks aloud, and releases the pressed button. The speech is recorded, and the recorded speech is then sent in the body of a request to the Submit servlet, which returns a unique receipt that the client can use later to identify this utterance. Exemplary protocol details for such a request can be seen in FIG. 17.

One of the header values sent to the server during the login process is the format in which the device records. That value is stored in the session so the Submit servlet knows how to convert the audio into a format required by the ASR engine. This is done in a separate thread as the process can take some time to complete.

The Yap9 button and Yap9 screen numbers are passed to the Submit server in the HTTP request header. These values are used to lookup a user-defined preference of what each button is assigned to. For example, the 1 button may be used to transcribe audio for an SMS message, while the 2 button is designated for a grammar based recognition to be used in a web services location based search. The Submit servlet determines the appropriate “Yaplet” to use. When the engine has finished transcribing the audio or matching it against a grammar, the results are stored in a hash table in the session.

In the case of transcribed audio for an SMS text message, a number of filters can be applied to the text returned from the ASR engine. Such filters may include, but are not limited to, those shown Table 1.

TABLE 1 Filter Type Function Ad Filter Used to scan the text and identify keywords that can be used to insert targeted advertising messages, and/or convert the keywords into hyperlinks to ad sponsored web pages Currency Used to format currency returned from the speech Filter engine into the user's preferred format. (e.g., “one hundred twenty dollars” −> “$120.00”) Date Filter Used to format dates returned from the speech engine into the user's preferred format. (e.g., “march fourth two thousand seven” −> “3/4/2007”) Digit Filter User to format spelled out single digits returned from the speech engine into a multi-digit number such as a zip code (e.g., “two eight two one one” −> “28211”) Engine Used to remove speech engine words Filter Number Used to convert the spelled out numbers returned Filter from the speech engine into a digit based number (e.g., “one hundred forty seven” −> “147”) Obscenity Used to place asterisks in for the vowels in Filter street slang (e.g., “sh*t”, “f*ck”, etc.) Punctuation Used to format punctuation Filter SMS Filter Used to convert regular words into a spelling which more closely resembles an SMS message (e.g., “don't forget to smile” −> “don't 4get 2 :)”, etc. ) Time Filter Used to format time phrases Notably, after all of the filters are applied, both the filtered text and original text are returned to the client so that if text to speech is enabled for the user, the original unfiltered text can be used to generate the TTS audio.

Usage Process—Results: The client retrieves the results of the audio by taking the receipt returned from the Submit servlet and submitting it as a request to the Results servlet. Exemplary protocol details for such a request can be seen in FIG. 18. This is done in a separate thread on the device and a timeout parameter may be specified which will cause the request to return after a certain amount of time if the results are not available. In response to the request, a block of XML is preferably returned. Exemplary protocol details for such a return response can be seen in FIG. 19. Alternatively, a serialized Java Results object may be returned. This object contains a number of getter functions for the client to extract the type of results screen to advance to (i.e., SMS or results list), the text to display, the text to be used for TTS, any advertising text to be displayed, an SMS trailer to append to the SMS message, etc.

Usage Process—TTS: The user may choose to have the results read back via Text to Speech. This can be an option the user could disable to save network bandwidth, but adds value when in a situation where looking at the screen is not desirable, like when driving. If TTS is used, the TTS string is extracted from the results and sent via an HTTP request to the TTS servlet. Exemplary protocol details for such a request can be seen in FIG. 20. The request blocks until the TTS is generated and returns audio in the format supported by the phone in the body of the result. This is performed in a separate thread on the device since the transaction may take some time to complete. The resulting audio is then played to the user through the AudioService object on the client. Preferably, TTS speech from the server is encrypted using Corrected Block Tiny Encryption Algorithm (XXTEA) encryption.

Usage Process—Correct: As a means of tracking accuracy and improving future SMS based language models, if the user makes a correction to transcribed text on the phone via the key elements of the key input unit 74 before sending the message, the corrected text is submitted to the Correct servlet along with the receipt for the request. This information is stored on the server for later use in analyzing accuracy and compiling a database of typical SMS messages. Exemplary protocol details for such a submission can be seen in FIG. 21.

Usage Process—Ping: Typically, web sessions will timeout after a certain amount of inactivity. The Ping servlet can be used to send a quick message from the client to keep the session alive. Exemplary protocol details for such a message can be seen in FIG. 22.

Usage Process—Debug: Used mainly for development purposes, the Debug servlet sends logging messages from the client to a debug log on the server. Exemplary protocol details can be seen in FIG. 23.

Usage Process—Logout: To logout from the Yap server, an HTTP logout request needs to be issued to the server. An exemplary such request would take the form: “/Yap/Logout;jsessionid=1234”, where 1234 is the session ID.

User Preferences: In at least one embodiment, the Yap website has a section where the user can log in and customize their Yap client preferences. This allows them to choose from available Yaplets and assign them to Yap9 keys on their phone. The user preferences are stored and maintained on the server and accessible from the Yap web application. This frees the Yap client from having to know about all of the different back-end Yaplets. It just records the audio, submits it to the server along with the Yap9 key and Yap9 screen used for the recording and waits for the results. The server handles all of the details of what the user actually wants to have happen with the audio.

The client needs to know what type of format to utilize when presenting the results to the user. This is accomplished through a code in the Results object. The majority of requests fall into one of two categories: sending an SMS message, or displaying the results of a web services query in a list format. Notably, although these two are the most common, the Yap architecture supports the addition of new formats.

Based on the foregoing description, it will be readily understood by those persons skilled in the art that the present invention is susceptible of broad utility and application. Many embodiments and adaptations of the present invention other than those specifically described herein, as well as many variations, modifications, and equivalent arrangements, will be apparent from or reasonably suggested by the present invention and the foregoing descriptions thereof, without departing from the substance or scope of the present invention.

Accordingly, while the present invention has been described herein in detail in relation to one or more preferred embodiments, it is to be understood that this disclosure is only illustrative and exemplary of the present invention and is made merely for the purpose of providing a full and enabling disclosure of the invention. The foregoing disclosure is not intended to be construed to limit the present invention or otherwise exclude any such other embodiments, adaptations, variations, modifications or equivalent arrangements, the present invention being limited only by the claims appended hereto and the equivalents thereof. 

1. A system comprising: an electronic data store configured to store: one or more algorithms that, when executed, implement an automatic speech recognition engine; and a language model; and a computing device in communication with the electronic data store, the computing device configured to: obtain audio data comprising speech; generate a transcription of the speech with the language model; cause presentation of the transcription; receive a response to the transcription; based at least in part on the response, update the language model to generate an updated language model. 